Development of a carbon-based lithium microbattery

A conceptual design for a carbon-based rechargeable Li microbattery and the progress in fabricating the electrode microstructures are described in this paper. The microstructures are produced from photoresists that are typically used by the semiconductor industry. The photoresist is spin coated on a silicon wafer, ‘patternedʹ by photolithography and then heated in an inert environment to form carbon microstructures (<50-micron dimension) which serve as the electrodes. Progress in fabricating the electrode microstructures, lithiation of the carbon negative electrode and electropolymerization of the polypyrrole positive electrode will be discussed.